Firefighters rescue abandoned baby from sewage pipe

Infant appears to have been flushed down toilet by parents

Firefighters in eastern China have rescued a newborn baby from a sewage pipe, where he was lodged after being flushed headfirst down a squat toilet. Rescue workers were called to the apartment building Saturday after residents heard crying.

Disturbing footage taken of the rescue shows a five-pound boy being carefully removed from a pipe directly under the toilet. It was an hour-long effort, after which the boy was taken to a hospital. Doctors declared him in stable condition despite heavy bruising.

An investigation is underway into how Baby No. 59 — named after his hospital incubator — came to be abandoned in the toilet, with possible homicide charges awaiting the parents.

Reports of abandoned babies are not rare in China. Some point to the country’s strict one-child policy, as well as young mothers not recognizing their own pregnancies, as possible reasons for the unfortunate trend. There is also greater worth placed on boys, often resulting in abandoned baby girls.

One woman from Jinhua, the scene of Baby No. 59’s rescue, shot to fame after the Daily Mail chronicled her efforts to save abandoned babies in the city.

Lou Xiaoying, now in her late 80s, saved her first infant in 1972 when she found a baby girl in a trash heap. In total, she saved and raised 30 children over several decades.